Excommunication

An archconservative French prelate consecrated four bishops in an Alpine meadow here Thursday, provoking the first major schism in the Roman Catholic Church in more than a century. Spurning a last-minute command from Pope John Paul II to cancel the ceremony and go to Rome, 82-year-old Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre went ahead with the consecrations of the four kneeling priests at 11:44 on a sultry mountain morning.

Californians of every religion, including people who oppose abortion, believe that a Catholic bishop was out of line when he barred a San Diego assemblywoman from receiving Communion because of her pro-choice stand, The Times Poll has found. The fact that the assemblywoman, Democrat Lucy Killea, went on to score an upset victory in a state Senate race tends to substantiate another point illustrated by the poll: It helps when running for elective office in California to be pro-choice on abortion.

A Roman Catholic bishop is threatening to excommunicate church members for joining abortion-rights and right-to-die groups. Church members in the Lincoln diocese have until May 15 to drop their membership in 12 groups, including Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society and Catholics for a Free Choice.

The government Friday backed a film director battling a Greek Orthodox bishop who has threatened to vandalize props and excommunicate anyone working on his movie. The bishop contends the film is unpatriotic in calling for the abolition of national borders. He also charges that a copy of the script he has seen contains erotic scenes. "The government unreservedly supports Theodore Angelopoulos. . . ,"' Culture Minister Tzannis Tzannetakis said.

Democratic Assemblywoman Lucy Killea, who was denied Communion by Roman Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher because of her pro-choice stand on abortion, was the apparent victor Tuesday in her special-election battle with Carol Bentley for a seat in the California Senate. The election was considered a referendum on abortion and how far the Roman Catholic Church may go in opposing it. With all 536 precincts reporting, Killea led with 50.

Eleven members of a gay and lesbian group were arrested Sunday during Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral when they demonstrated to protest their exclusion from the Roman Catholic Church. The protesters were served with a temporary restraining order barring them from trespassing and interrupting the services. When they refused to sit down along with other parishioners, police removed them without incident.

A sampling of the nation's leading Roman Catholic bishops indicates that most are distancing themselves from San Diego Bishop Leo T. Maher, who last week banned a Democratic assemblywoman from Communion for her openly pro-choice stance, saying they prefer to appeal to an official's conscience first. Several of the bishops said, however, they still may ultimately penalize Catholic politicians who blatantly oppose the church's teaching on abortion.

Southern Baptists have banished two congregations for accepting homosexuals and set in motion a precedent-setting change in bylaws to exclude other churches that do the same. The Southern Baptist Convention, attended by about 18,000 members, voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to expel two North Carolina congregations: the Pullen Memorial Church in Raleigh, which blessed a union of two homosexual men, and the Binkley Memorial Church in Chapel Hill, which ordained a homosexual to preach.

Leaders of the Mormon Church who excommunicated the only American Indian ever appointed to the church hierarchy are busy trying to blunt the impact of his stormy exit and the questions he raised. George P. Lee, the first Mormon high official in 46 years to be erased from membership rolls, is heading to the mountains alone for a month or more of fasting and meditation about his future outside the church, which he claims is polluted from the top by pride and racial prejudice.